In Progress
US Real Estate Deep Dive
Comprehensive market analysis from 26,297 ZIP codes · 6 data sources · 10.2M+ rows
$359K
Avg Home Value (Feb 2026)
$2,041
Avg Monthly Rent (Feb 2026)
+1.3%
Price YoY (Feb 2025–2026)
+3.8%
Rent YoY (Feb 2025–2026)
6.46%
30yr Mortgage (Apr 2026)
4.8x
Price-to-Income (2026 price / 2022 income)
+43%
Home Value Growth (Jan 2020–Feb 2026)
Key Findings
🏠
Home values have outpaced inflation by nearly 2x since 2020
National average home values rose 43.2% since January 2020, while CPI inflation totaled 26.4%. Real (inflation-adjusted) home price growth is approximately 17% over five years.
📉
Price growth has cooled sharply
Year-over-year appreciation is now just 1.3%, down from 15%+ peaks in 2021-2022. The rate shock worked — but prices never fell nationally.
🏦
Rates remain elevated at 6.46%
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 6.46%, roughly double the sub-3% lows of 2021. This locks in a structural affordability gap and keeps existing homeowners in place (the “lock-in effect”).
💰
National affordability: 4.8x price-to-income
The average home costs 4.8x the median household income (using 2022 Census data — the actual current ratio is likely 10-20% more favorable). The traditional benchmark for “affordable” is 3.0x.
📊
Rents are rising faster than home values
Rent growth is 3.8% YoY vs 1.3% for home values — indicating yield expansion and improving fundamentals for rental property investors.
🗺️
A tale of two markets
The most expensive state (HI, avg $863,557) has homes worth 5.7x the cheapest (WV, avg $152,780). Geographic dispersion has widened post-pandemic.
Data Sources
Zillow ZHVI
6.3M rows · Jan 2000 – Feb 2026
Home values, 26,297 ZIPs
Zillow ZORI
421K rows · Jan 2015 – Feb 2026
Observed rents, ZIP-level
Redfin Market
3.2M rows · Jan 2012 – Dec 2025
Sales, inventory, DOM
FRED
2.4K rows · Jan 2010 – Apr 2026
Mortgage rates, CPI, Case-Shiller
Census ACS
134K rows · 2019 – 2022
Income, population, housing
Geographic Crosswalk
33.8K ZIPs
ZIP → county → metro → state
US Real Estate Deep Dive · Built from public data (Zillow, Redfin, FRED, Census ACS, BLS) · Last updated April 2026